Mira's New Friend
by Elmblossom17
Summary: Mira eldest child and only daughter of Sango and Miroku befriends a village girl who has been ostracized because of her looks. Set in the 'Brotherly Love' universe. Slightly limeish Sango/Miroku content at the end.


**Mira's New Friend**

by J. Robinson

xx/xx/'03

Mira pulled her shoulder-length black hair back into a tight ponytail at the base of her neck, like her father Miroku's. She smiled at her reflection in the small mirror on her wall, and giggled as her grayish-blue eyes sparkled with mirth. The almost five-year-old tomboy grabbed her mini-hiraikotsu and slung it over her back before running out the door.

She passed her mother, Sango, who was seated at the eating table, having breakfast. "Hi, kaasan!" the child cried happily, waving at her mother as she ran by.

"Good morning, Mira-chan," Sango said to the empty air through which her daughter had recently passed. She smiled and shook her head at her daughter's boundless energy.

Out in front of the large-ish hut, Mira passed her father, Miroku, who was practicing a kata with his monk's staff. "Hi, 'tousan!" she giggled and ran on.

Miroku stopped his practiced movements and leaned on his staff, shaking his head and smiling. "Hi, Mira-chan," he called after her laughing, bouncing, retreating form. "So much _energy_!" he murmured to himself with a paternal sigh. "Ahh, youth is wasted on the young." With that, the ex-monk swung his staff up into defense position again, and continued with his kata.

Mira ran happily down the dirt path towards her Aunt Kagome and Uncle Inuyasha's hut on the edge of the Sacred Forest. As she came into view of her aunt and uncle's domicile, she saw the twins, Inume and Kayame, wearing matching child's formal haori and hakama in a black-and-white pattern (Inume's haori was white with black rectangles while her hakama were black, and Kayame's haori was black with white rectangles paired with white hakama.) They were sitting on the little wooden bench in front of their home, playing sedately with their twin dolls. Inume's doll had been made to look just like her, and Kayame's to look like her. Mira stuck her tongue out at the two girls as she passed them. They only favored her with icy, haughty glares. Well, Inume glared, and Kayame kind of looked at her cousin hard.

Out back of the hut, Mire saw her male cousins, eight-year-old Kagasha, and four-year-old Inugosha, or Inu-chan as everyone called him. They appeared to be playing 'lump over the log,' and it looked like Kagasha was winning - as usual. "Hi. Kaga-chan! Hi, Inu-chan!" shouted the little girl as she raced past, causing Kagasha to fall to the gound in shock from the middle of a jump. Little Inu-chan laughed at his bothersome brother's misfortune, and waved at Mira.

Having reached the dirt path leading through the Sacred Forest, Mira elected to slow down a bit in order to enjoy the scenery. Slowing from her headlong dash to more of a loping jog, Mira ran down the path, heading deeper into the Forest. She loved the forest. It was like a second home to her.

Mira stopped very suddenly when she heard a soft, unfamiliar sound - a child's weeping. Confused, Mira looked around, and finally figured out that the sounds were coming from just behind a tree to one side of the path. Curiously, the little tomboy went around the side of the tree, to see who - or what - was crying.

She saw a little child, a girl, with the darkest hair she had ever seen. Mira's own hair was black, but somehow, the other girl's was blacker. She also had skin as pale as a ghost. Mira wondered if maybe the little girl was a ghost, and that was why she was crying.

"What's the matter with you?" she asked bluntly.

The dark-haired girl's head snapped up and she stared at Mira. Mira noted that her eyes were the same deep black as her hair, making her look as if she had no pupils, and heightening the 'ghostly' look of her.

However, the very red blood dripping from her split lip and the ugly yellow-green-purple bruise around her right eye told Mira that she was no ghost, only a little girl who'd been hurt.

"What happened to you?" she asked softly, her blue-gray eyes widening.

"I fell down," said the little girl, but she didn't look Mira in the eye, and she covered her eye and lip with her hands.

"Did somebody hit you?" Mira asked, and felt sorry for the girl when she froze and refused to answer. She frowned and waled toward the little girl. "I'm sorry you got hurt," she said. "Come on, I'll take you to my 'kaasan, and she'll make you feel all better!" Mira smiled cheerfully and held out her free hand to the girl, holding her mini-hiraikotsu over her shoulder with her other hand.

"I..." mumbled the girl, still hiding the injuries on her face.

"C'mon, my 'kaasan will help you, she always makes me feel better when I fall down," Mira chattered, and pointed to the scars on her elbows and lower arms. "These hurt when I got 'em, but my 'kaasan made 'em feel all better."

"How'd you get those?" asked the little girl, staring wide-eyed at Mira's scars.

"I fell out of my uncle Inuyasha's special big tree," she said, and scowled at the memory, looking in the direction of the God Tree.

"Why were you climbing in a tree?" asked the girl, her black eyes fascinated.

"I like climbing trees! 'Sides, my cousin Kagasha dared me, an' then I _hadda_ do it." Mira shrugged. She smiled widely at the other girl, showing the gap in her smile where one of her front teeth had been knocked out when she fell off the roof of her house, trying to fly, a few months back. She'd gotten scolded roundly for that one. Sango had actually been in tears. That, seeing her mother cry, had frightened Mira more than falling off the roof.

"My name is Mira. What's yours?" Mira said, as the black-haired girl finally took her hand and pulled herself to her feet. Mira wasn't exactly tall for a five-year-old, but the other girl was even shorter. Mira thought she looked like a little kid.

"Siute... it's nice to meet you, Mira." The ghostly-looking girl smiled, slightly painfully.

"Si-ut-ey... um, can I call you Si-si?" asked Mira, embarassed.

"Sure," Siute agreed shyly. Mira grinned crookedly and, pulling thesmaller girl behind her by the hand, started off at a slow run back to the village.

Before long, Mira burst through the door of her family's hut, startling Sango, who was sewing a small haori for little Kohaku, the baby. "Hello, Mira-chan, who is your friend?" she asked, and then silently gasped when she saw the cuts and bruises on her little pale face. "Oh, my dear..." she murmured, setting aside the baby's haori and standing up to move over to the children.

"Kaasan, this is my new friend Si-si. She fell down and got hurted-" Mira frowned as she repeated Siute's story, knowing it was not the truth, but that was all that Siute had told her. "Can you make her feel better like you did for me when I got hurted?" She held up her arms, displaying the jagged, white, bumpy scars.

"I can certainly clean her up, and that will make her feel better," Sango said with a gentle, maternal smile. She hunkered down to be on the children's level and looked the dark-haired child in the eyes. "My name is Sango. Mira-chan is my daughter."

"It's nice to meet you, Sango-san," said the little girl, bowing her head slightly. "My name is Siute, but Mira-chan has called me Si-si."

"Would you prefer to be called Siute?" Sango asked kindly.

"I... I like Si-si," said the girl, smiling a little. Then she winced and touched her split lip.

"Oh, that must hurt a lot," Sango said with motherly concern. "Here, come with me and we'll get you cleaned right up." She stood up and smiled down at the diminuitive waif.

Shyly Siute followed Sango out the back door, where a rainwater barrel stood, nearly full. Sango pulled a cloth from her haori and wetted it, then began to gently clean the dried blood and dirt smudges from the child's face. The little girl winced a few times, but did not cry or protest.

Sango finished cleaning off the girl's face, and smiled at her. "There, all done. Do you feel a little better now?"

Siute noddd shyly. "Yes, Sango-san." She bowed her head again. "Thank you, Sango-san."

Sango smiled at the child. "You're welcome, Si-si. If this happens again, come find me, ok?"

"Yes, Sango-san." Siute smiled a little bit, lopsidedly.

"Come on, Si-si! Let's go play!" Mira said happily. She had been waiting semi-patiently for her mother to finish with Siute, and now she wanted to take her friend and go have fun.

"Ok," Siute said softly. Mira giggled and grabbed her hand. The two ran off.

Sango watched them go with a slight frown. She very much doubted that Siute had gotten those injuries from a fall. Someone had hit her.

The ex-tajiya shook her head and sighed. If it happened again, she would have to speak with the child's parents. She went back into the house, thinking of her sewing project.

"Oh! Miroku!" she said with a surprised giggle as a pair of strong arms slid around her.

"Sango..." he said softly, and dropped a kiss on her cheek. "The children are all gone... we're alone..."

"Even marriage has not calmed your lechery," Sango said with an exaggerated sigh. Then she jumped as she felt a familiar heat creeping over her backside. "_Hentai_!" she shrieked, and giggled as Miroku smiled devilishly. She reached up and pulled him down for a long, passionate kiss.

A moment later, she was swept off her feet and carried into their bedroom. "Aishiteru, Sango," Miroku breathed into her ear. "Aishiteru..."

"_Aishiteru_," Sango sighed as his lips crawled down her neck. "H-hai. Aishiteru, Miroku... _Miroku_." One hand tangled in his fine black hair, and the other clutched at his shoulder, pulling him closer. "Aishiteru!"

"Sango," he murmured. "Sango, my love, my only love."

"Miroku..." she moaned, and as her mind filled with his touch and his love, she forgot all about the little girl with the black eye and the split lip.


End file.
